“What the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. Whether I’m online or not, my mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles. Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.”
The author notes with a hint of surprise that his ability to focus and stay focused on a task is no longer what it once was after the advent of the internet. He notes the relative impatience he now feels with not being able to take in data the way it is broadcast through the internet, but is only now cognizant of the affects of long term internet usage
“Culture is sustained in our synapses...It's more than what can be reduced to binary code and uploaded onto the Net. To remain vital, culture must be renewed in the minds of the members of every generation. Outsource memory, and culture withers..”
The author warns of the passivity that is created by the ease of the internet. He posits that for a culture to grow, survive, and truly be internalized by a people there must be an active participation in both the creation, propagation, and innovation of it. The internet makes it too easy to record aspects of culture, therefore also easy to take for granted and neglect; therefore it is also easy to forget and things that are forgotten eventually fade into nothingness—cultures are not exempted
“The Net’s interactivity gives us powerful new tools for finding information, expressing ourselves, and conversing with others. It also turns us into lab rats constantly pressing levers to get tiny pellets of social or intellectual nourishment.”
The author describes the internet as the proverbial double-edged sword in that while users are able to get the information they need and connect to other users, the information generated from the habitual use of it is also being gathered and used by corporations. The information gathered by these corporations, in turn, is used to slowly alter user habits by exposing them to new stimulus disguised as snippets of useful information or short bursts of entertainment specifically tailored to appeal to whatever preferences have been determined through the observed behavior of the user.
